Title: Increasing awareness among fluid milk processors of the economic feasibility of energy efficiency projects, and encouraging their adoption through access to benchmarking and other decision-support tools

Technical Abstract:
Based on a study done by Thoma et al. (2010) the energy used in fluid milk processing in the United States of America is responsible for approximately 2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the total life cycle of milk. These emissions come from electricity use (about 75 percent), fuel use (about 23 percent) and refrigerant leakage (2 percent). While energy efficiency best practices exist that can help fluid milk plants reduce energy use, emissions and operating costs, one of the biggest challenges to implementation among processors is lack of verified information for better decision making by processors on the appropriate energy efficiency practices and technologies for adoption in their plants. Dairy Plant Smart is one of ten projects launched by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy to reduce GHG across the entire dairy supply chain. This paper will describe how the Dairy Plant Smart project is encouraging identification and adoption of energy management best practices in milk processing plants through increasing awareness among processors of the economic feasibility of energy efficiency projects, and encouraging their adoption through access tobenchmarking and other decision support tools.